Self service started in the USA about a decade earlier due to minimum wage hikes: entrepreneurial attempts to cut off until then required pumping jobs succeeded, much to everyone’s surprise.
Then devious concept followed in Europe about a decade later, about the time the time this picture was taken. Still most were full service there
I mean I’m personally happy I don’t need to have someone help me fill a fuel tank. I’m happy to do self checkout. Hell, I’d be happy to make my own sandwich at a restaurant if they’d let me.
In theory, I would like full service if it was just like 10-20¢ more and the person performing the work truly cared about the job they were doing.
Imagine someone topping off your wiper fluid, washing your windows and doing a high level walk-around your car to ensure nothing looks out of place. Perhaps even some small talk about a good route for a Sunday drive or interesting events in the area, like a parade or public concert downtown next week.
But the reality is, like the beautiful sink your teeth into burger on the commercial versus the squished train wreck I actually get, those kinds of service people would be few and far in between. And, while I don’t necessarily blame folks for going all minimum viable product, I still think it sucks that we do. So self service it is.
You would imagine that someone would have already re-tried this idea and called it "bespoke gas service" or some nonsense. Put it as a subscription service and prolific nature of Love's or Buc-ee's and you would get people signing up like crazy.
I’m slow at it and I find just loading groceries onto a belt a more efficient process. Plus when the machines mess up or I bag an item too quickly I get held up.
For me it is entering correct vegetable and fruit codes. I found it fun and a novelty when self checkout was first introduced, now I will go out of my way, slightly, to not enter or scan
You have to remember the codes?! I can either, depending on the type of selfcheckout, weigh at a weighing station and pick from images with text and get a sticker barcode printed to put on it, or select from images with text at the bagging station.